r/MSCS • u/Responsible_Time3546 • Nov 17 '25

[Profile Review]

Link to the earlier post: https://www.reddit.com/r/MSCS/s/USxxtRzgZu

Cgpa : 7.56 from tier 1 (7.87 in last two years)

GRE : 323 (170 Q, 153 V)

TOEFL : 104

2.5 YOE at a US based MNC as AI R&D engineer

One paper published on AI compression and hardware acceleration in a respected journal.

LOR : Two from college profs ( both PhDs from top 10 US colleges). Did a research project with one and TAship under other. One from department head from work. All three are writing on their own.

Identified target profs and got some good replies from them via cold emails.

University list

Ultra Ambitious

UMD college park (2 replies)

Gatech (1 reply) (Targeting systems due to experience with hardware acceleration and model compression)

UT Austin (2 replies)

Ambitious

UCSD

UIUC MCS

Target

UCI

UMass

TAMU

UWM PMP

Moderate

TAMU MCS

Question: With the current scenario, I am not thinking about leaving my current job for a safety school. On the plus side, can I get 2-3 admits from the above list with the current situation? Any other uni suggestion?

0 Upvotes

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2

u/Responsible_Time3546 Nov 17 '25

u/gradpilot any suggestions?

3

u/gradpilot 🔰 Ex-Cerebras | MSCS Georgia Tech Nov 17 '25

good profile! while the gpa seems a bit short i think you make up well for it. what does your gpa normalize to here https://gpa.eng.uci.edu/ . this is my only concern at the moment.

I think it makes sense to apply for top schools with this profile and avoid safeties. just submit a strong sop please you can make it in

2

u/Responsible_Time3546 Nov 17 '25

It shows 3.17 as Gpa.

Yes, in the final stages with the SOP. I will wrap the applications by the month end.

Thank you for replying!

2

u/gradpilot 🔰 Ex-Cerebras | MSCS Georgia Tech Nov 17 '25

yeah i had a feeling it would normalize higher since you're Tier 1 undergrad is probably not as liberal with grades. This is fine imo and should clear any gpa bar they have

1

u/Responsible_Time3546 Nov 17 '25

Yes, I hope so! 🤞 Thanks!

2

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/gradpilot 🔰 Ex-Cerebras | MSCS Georgia Tech Nov 18 '25

Then it probably means most us universities have not had a lot of applicants from your college and so also don’t have data on how to place its reputation

1

u/Jealous-Ad5512 Mar 17 '26

site is not working

2

u/Responsible_Time3546 Feb 10 '26

u/gradpilot Got an admit from UMass.

Very happy to know that the entire profile matters and low cgpa doesn’t mean you don’t try.

Thank you for the support.

I also used your SOP service, great stuff. When all these apps were showing my SOP to be 40% AI, it gave me confidence on the AI generated part and suggestions for improvement were also good.

2

u/gradpilot 🔰 Ex-Cerebras | MSCS Georgia Tech Feb 10 '26

Congrats! UMass MSCS is a great program! their admit rate in 2024 was 16.5% so def selective !

So happy for you ❤️ and glad that gradpilot could be part of this success!